I'll be a star (you keep directing me)
by misguideddreamer
Summary: Katherine Pierce will not break. (Katerina Petrova might)


She wants him to come back. She wants him to turn around and hold her and whisper that it was all a mistake. He will not. But he will watch- Katherine knows he will linger for a last look and so she cannot afford to break. She _will not break_. So instead, she stands a little straighter and turns, curls swinging over her shoulder and leaves with a Katherine Pierce smirk.

She hopes he chokes on that smirk. She should have been the Original, she thinks, and Klaus would have been long dead by now. She wonders if he will still chase her. Let him, she thinks bitterly. He has taken everything from her but her vampirism.

She remembers her last words to Elijah and scoffs. It will not happen again. She must not be a fool any longer; but she will make him beg; make him beg as she once did.

And when Katherine is far enough away that she can breathe freely once more, she rips into a faceless throat and drinks, in controlled mechanical movements which would show her as unfeeling as she wishes to be. The woods around her spin when she opens her eyes, the stranger sent on his way with an empty memory, and she finds her self digging her nails into her palms in an effort to make the world steady once more.

The man stumbles before her once more and she looks at him carefully.

"I told you to go on your way," Katherine says irritably, but the man shakes his head and offers her a quick smile.

"I can't be compelled," he says lazily, and she smoothly has him pinned him against the bark of a tree.

"I'll just have to kill you then," and he is laughing at her, eyes full of genuine mirth that stops her in her tracks and forces her to take a step back.

"That would be boring," He says, and with his head tilted to one side, moonlight catching the grey of his eyes, she realises he is pretty with a start. "Your reputation precedes you, Miss Pierce. I expected sparkling wit and a quick death."

"Who are you?" She says, walking around him in a half circle and a click of her heeled boots. Her game face is back on.

His name is Liam, and he is going to die. His wife is already dead, but he wants to meet his newborn niece before he dies. Somehow Katherine finds herself agreeing to accompany him to first scatter his wife's ashes under her favourite tree (what is wrong with her?) and then to meet his sister's baby girl.

He gives her a time span of two months before he wants her to snap his neck.

* * *

Katherine likes Liam. She likes the way he refuses to let anything faze him – what's the point? He asked her with a bitter laugh one night- and the way he is not afraid of her.

They find themselves in a car driving up to New York, the very first night they meet. Katherine drives.

"What was her name?" She asks quietly when he sighs.

"She was called Lianne. We hated each other at first," and Katherine is flung back to a time when she whispered playful words in Stefan Salvatore's ears- _hate is the beginning of a love story, not the end of one._

Liam does not tell her about his wife's personality- he tells her of memories, of her sitting by the fire half drunk on wine, of her laugh and the way she looked when she was angry.

She finds herself clutching his hand with empathy when he talks, and that is how they arrive in New York, a half asleep Liam still slightly mumbling, and a Katherine who would rather not be alone with her thoughts.

"We have to check into the Marriott by Battery Park," Liam insists, so she half supports him, half drags him into the lobby of the hotel. The financial district of New York is so boring, she thinks with a wrinkle of her nose, but doesn't say anything and instead compels the lady at the front desk to give them one of the already reserved suites. She dumps Liam unceremoniously on a bed, and retires to her own rooms, wishing she could sleep.

* * *

"We look like fools," She whispers, nudging him with one heel clad foot. Liam is kneeling on the soil before a tree that looks like all the damn trees in this stupid park, digging a hole before it with his hands. "Hurry up," She says again, clenching her teeth and forcing the words out.

Liam only laughs a nice deep chuckle that makes her wish she could feel something for him. But maybe it's better that she doesn't; another heartbreak would- well most probably not do anything to her because she is Katherine Pierce and she will live forever.

Liam straightens up then, kneeling before the tree with a bent head. She hopes he's not crying- crying humans have always made her uncomfortable. By the time he faces her however, he is perfectly composed, and links his arm through hers, suggesting lunch in a ramshackle café.

They spend a short month in New York- Katherine shows him her New York- the vampire underworld and the nightclubs where she is still recognised, and Liam shows him hers. You are a baby, she remarks playfully one night when they are drunk, and he kisses her for the first time then, all teeth and tongue.

They are not a couple. Neither of them see any future for them, but it is fun and Liam is still young and Katherine wants him to be happy when he dies.

And he is reasonably attractive. More than reasonably- she sees the looks they get, her dark hair a stark contrast to his sandy blonde, and knows they must make a striking couple. She enjoys his companionship; Liam is the most playful in a long list of lovers Katherine Pierce has taken.

They leave New York after the fourth week there and Liam is quieter than ever before.

"I'm never coming back here," he says, and she smirks.

"You'll get over it," She replies, and to anyone else she would look like she was a cold hearted bitch- Liam returns the smirk with one of his own and squeezes her hand.

"Where does your sister live anyway?" And of course it's New Orleans, Katherine thinks with a grim smile. Of course it's the one place she'd sworn to avoid, but she will not leave Liam now, when he is so close to dying.

Maybe Elijah could heal him, she thinks, before settling more comfortably into her seat.

* * *

Kaya is adorable. Katherine loves children, but this one year old is honestly the most enchanting child she's ever met. Then again, it might be because this is the closest she has got to a child for centuries. The first time Kaya sees Katherine, she crawls into her lap and asks her to do her hair like hers.

Liam's sister Natalie is beautiful too, and she accepts Katherine without any real disdain or judgement. She watches the way the family interact the first week there with an awful kind of longing which leaves her breathless.

She's kissing Liam one night in his room when he stops her and smiles. "Let's go out for dinner," He says, "You and me and Kaya. Natalie needs a break anyway."

He promises to take them somewhere fancy, so she sets Kaya's caramel curls for her and chooses a white crotchet dress for her. For herself, Katherine decides she's been too long without being _Katherine Pierce_.

So she unearths a black bodycon dress with nothing but criss cross straps down her back, pairing it with diamond chandelier earrings and a diamond bracelet. She slides on her red pumps, grabs her red clutch with one hand and holds Kaya with the other.

We look like a couple, she muses when they arrive at the restaurant, fancy as Liam had promised, with his arm around her shoulders.

"You look terrifying," he stoops to whisper in her ears as they are led to their seats, and she rewards him with an almost chaste kiss on the cheek.

Kaya insists on staying in Katherine's lap for the duration of dinner, and she knows she should be annoyed, but big brown eyes plead with her and she finds herself relenting and sharing a meal she does not need to eat with the one and a bit year old. When she falls asleep just before dessert is served, tiny head tucked into Katherine, she is filled with an ache she can almost identify as longing. She remembers the misery of childbirth, the misery of knowing she was pregnant and the misery of knowing she will never hold her daughter in her arms.

"Excuse me miss," the waiter says when he arrives with dessert. "Someone would like to see you in the upper rooms. _Alone._" He stresses the last word, and Liam rises.

* * *

After a short yet heated disagreement with the waiter, in which she outlines that Liam comes with her or she does not come at all, the three of them find themselves being led into a private study above the restaurant. She stops Liam with a hand on his shoulder before they go in, making sure Kaya's head is safely tucked into her shoulder. "If I tell you," she whispers, "take Kaya and run. Don't worry about me."

If it is Klaus waiting behind that door, they will not leave with their lives. She was a bloody fool- she should have left New Orleans the minute Liam was safely home. He squeezes her shoulder, arm around her as they enter.

"Elijah," She says, and he turns to face them with a grim smile. Liam's hand clenches against her shoulder and she gives him a reassuring smile before adjusting Kaya on her hip. She feels stupid now, as if she is playing at happy families, but if Elijah is surprised, he never shows it.

"Katerina," he says simply, and then, "It is not safe for you to be here. While not actively pursuing you, should Klaus find you, you will die."

Liam's arm slips from her shoulder and he clenches his fists at his side. Katherine slips her quick fingers into his hand, urging him to relax. Elijah can make of it what he will- if Liam gets too worked up, there is a chance he will have a heart attack right now and die prematurely.

Elijah's eyes flash with something indiscernible and he moves forward, until he is in front of her, hands in his suit pockets.

"I heard what you said Elijah," Katherine says wearily. "I will not stay here for longer than two weeks." Kaya shifts in her arms and she watches Elijah's eyes narrow onto the child in her arms. Katherine tightens her grip.

"Who is the child?" He asks, and anyone but her would think he was unaffected. But she knows Elijah, and she gives him a half smirk. "Vampires cannot have children, Katherine."

"I know they can't," she snaps, and has to control her hand so she doesn't break Liam's bones. "If you have nothing better to do than state the obvious, we're leaving."

She is almost at the door, Liam in tow, when the door swings open of its own accord and she is faced with Klaus.

* * *

She doesn't even think about it, just shoves Liam behind her with one quick sweep of her arm, and cradles Kaya closer. This is all her fault, she should have left, and she can't let them be harmed by him. Elijah winces.

"Elijah," Klaus begins, and Katherine wants to rip out his heart with her bare hands, even though it isn't really her style; blood always gets under her nails and makes her shudder. "Thank you for informing me of Katherine's presence." She isn't sure if he is being sarcastic, but she turns and pins Elijah with a dark glare anyway.

"Let Liam and Kaya go," She speaks steadily, staring into Klaus's eyes carefully. "And you can have me." Liam makes a startled sound from behind her and she carefully detaches Kaya from her, unwinding her small arms and passing her to Liam.

"Hasn't Elijah informed you?" Klaus chuckles and she steels her spine. "I'm a changed man now. I couldn't possibly kill a harmless human and a baby, not when I have one of my own."

He steps further into the room and she looks to Liam, nodding to him to go. "Get out," She murmurs, fully aware that Elijah and Klaus can both hear her. "If I live, I promise to kill you." And Liam grins and reaches for her, giving her a one armed kiss mingled with the taste of salt. She leans into it and tries to memorise how he feels, how he tastes, this boy who may become the only good thing she ever did.

She gives a last look at Kaya until the door snaps behind him, and she is Katherine Pierce once more.

"So boys," She drawls, stalking over to the desk and sitting upon the polished surface in one fluid movement, "What are you going to do with me?"

"Who is the man?" Elijah asks and she grins, the smile rising unbidden to her lips.

"Just a man," She says, and Klaus scoffs.

"A man whose life I saw you place above your own. I've seen how desperately you lust for life, and those were not actions I would have expected of you."

"Thank you," She says, cocking her head sideways in a way that makes her tight curls brush her collar bones; in a way that makes Elijah gulp, his eyes fixed on her neck.

"Who is he?" Klaus presses.

"Just…a man, whom I happen to be a little _fond_ of," She enunciates her words carefully, and hopes Elijah is burning inside. Let him burn, she thinks, and stands a little straighter; makes her gaze a little more defiant.

Her phone buzzes once, twice, three times in her clutch purse, but she lets it buzz. She will find Liam later and tell him she will leave tonight. He must make his choice. If he wants to die tonight, she will kill him. She owes him that much.

"We all noticed how _fond_ you were of each other," is all Klaus has to say before he sighs and makes for the door.

"I will not kill you Katerina," he says before he leaves, "I owe that to my brother."

You owe him that and so much more, she wants to spit. You owe him more than 500 years we could have been together, you owe him because I can never reconcile with him. She watches him leave with pursed lips before standing herself.

Elijah is in front of her before she is halfway to the door, and Katherine watches him watch her. He does not know what to say to her- he knows her well enough to know she will not take him back after what he did.

"Katerina, you heard what Klaus said…" He trails off and she smirks because this is not the mighty, infallible Elijah everyone is scared of.

"And I heard what you said," She starts coldly, "Before."

"Family before all," she pauses, looking at him with hard brown eyes, "And I'm choosing my family over you."

* * *

"I don't want to die," Liam breathes in the dark, from where they sit on opposing gravestones. "But if I die it'll have to be tonight."

"I'll make it painless," She tries to reassure him; twirling the slim stem of the rose he got her in between her fingers.

"The pain isn't what I'm worried about."

"You want me to kill you in a graveyard?" She flings a few rose petals half heartedly at him, flashing him a soft smile he won't be able to see in the darkness.

"Katerina," Growls someone, _something_, from across where they are sitting.

"Klaus," She forces herself to scramble to a sitting position, even as every instinct in her body screams for her to run. But Liam is on the floor before anyone recognises what is happening, and she can't stop the screams ripping out from her throat.

She holds Klaus at arm's length, holding him away from Liam before he can rip into his throat. Klaus calms; she is not entirely sure why.

"Do you want to die?" She growls, and Liam nods once but she is too late and all there is now is Liam being wrenched away from her, dragged as if he is nothing but a rag doll.

"No!" She shrieks when Klaus comes for her, canines sinking into the soft flesh of her throat, and she flails away from him, trying to pull at his flesh and create ribbons of his flesh but he is drinking out of her and Katerina Petrova begins to howl, because-

_She is going to die. _

She can pinpoint the exact moment she realises that. Klaus has bitten her but he still has teeth in her neck. She claws at his face with newly manicured red nails, shredding her nails and her skin in the process.

"Jesus," Klaus breathes as she squirms against him, squeezing her wrist so hard she feels a few bones snap, "I'm not going to kill you."

But he has bitten her and she cannot understand what he means to do to her. Liam makes a groan from where he is sprawled on the grass a few metres away from them both, and she catches sight of the red sticky stuff oozing out of the side of her head. She was supposed to kill him, she thinks. She was supposed to do that, for him.

"Heal him," She spits at Klaus, whose bloodied lips curl into a snarl.

"Elijah will decide what to do with you."

* * *

She cradles Liam's head as she speeds behind Klaus, through the darkened streets of New Orleans. She can already feel the sandpaper of his bite grating against her throat, but she must concentrate on getting Liam healed.

"Heal him!" She screams at Klaus and when he does not reply, she closes her eyes against the angry tears and presses her hand on the wound on his head.

"I left Nat…I left her a letter…and Kaya…" Liam whispers and she screams in frustration.

"I'll save you, I promise," She says, and he shakes his head, smile on his lips.

"We never even cared about each other that much…" why is he choking blood? The Katerina inside Katherine begins to wither.

"No," She claws out a half strangled sob that comes out as a cry.

"He's dying!" She shrieks, and it echoes through the empty street of mansions, hollow and cold. Klaus is laughing, she registers, and she has blood on her hands, in the crevices of her broken nails. So messy, she thinks, before she collapses, and Klaus is still laughing, even through her legs feel like dead weights and Liam is gone.

"So are you," He says, and pulls her to her feet, leaving Liam's body lying there. She will not look back. She doesn't have time…she has to save herself first. Katherine feels herself slip into unconsciousness when Klaus opens the door of a mansion, to a dark hallway, and it is then she lets herself collapse.

* * *

_You must fight, Katerina._ Her thoughts sing to her in voices that sound like her mother, and she claws her way to consciousness with a snarl that escapes her lips as a whimper.

She is lying on the soft leather of a chaise lounge, body sticky with the web of dried blood that covers it. She refuses to think of Liam, and instead forces heavy eyelids to crack open.

Klaus is resting on the window ledge directly opposite her, watching her with hooded eyes in the half-light. Elijah is not here, so she will not be saved. Katherine makes the effort to tilt her head upwards, inviting him to kill her. If she weren't already dead, she would die from the pain that rattles through her body.

"Kill you?" Klaus murmurs and shakes his head. "Elijah is here. I suggest begging for your life."

She tries to choke out a no, tries to let him know she will never beg for anything from him ever again, but find nothing escapes save for a small groan and Klaus stalks away, slamming the door behind him. The world begins to swim before Katherine's eyes, and she squeezes them shut in an effort to reach for her mother's voice.

"Katerina," she hears faintly, and she registers panic in the voice. Let him panic, she thinks spitefully. Her eyes stay shut, eyelashes fluttering against the luminous glow of her skin as she tries to open them.

She hears him curse softly in a language that is foreign to her ears, although that may be because she feels as if she is at the end of a tunnel, listening to muffled voices that grow ever more distant.

"Listen to me…" She hears someone rasp and cannot make anything out after that. Death is peaceful.

_Katerina._

Mama, she thinks and suddenly she is crawling up to consciousness, to find a wrist pressed to her lips. She takes the blood as greedily as she dares. Her strength will not return immediately she knows, but already she feels strong enough to sleep for a little while. Just a moment, she promises herself. She cannot tell if the enraged howl she hears is a figment of her imagination as she slips into a deep sleep.

* * *

She wakes on a wine chaise lounge, still in the bloodied purple sweater dress she had changed into before she went to talk to Liam. This room is as dark and richly furnished as all of the other rooms that Mikaelsons own, and she slides off the chaise almost soundlessly.

"You almost died," He says from the doorway, in such a clipped tone that others that did not know him would think he was blaming her for it. She meets his gaze unflinchingly.

"But I didn't," She says, cool as ever, stiffening her spine when she moves closer.

"I'm sorry," he says, and she tilts her head up to look into Elijah's eyes. "Klaus was foolish."

No more than you, she wants to say, but instead she grits her teeth and waits for him to continue. He does not. Katherine clenches her jaw and makes to move past him, half expecting his arms to stop her.

They do, and for a moment she can pretend it was a silly fight they had, and she can pretend she is going to relax into him once more. You will not, she promises herself.

"I'm sorry," he breathes and the words ghost across her skin like the gossamer of a dream.

"I only tried to do what I felt was right." His words are clipped again but he is soft, so gentle it makes her tear inside. "For your family." She finishes for him, defeated.

"Stop," she says when he begins to speak. "You made your choice, and I made mine. Second best is not something I will ever settle for, so please stop trying."

"And if I put you first?"

She falters for a second, but it is all he needs. "Well," She starts hesitantly, "You would have to show me I could trust you first."

But Elijah's hands are already making for her face, and Katherine is- against all reason- meeting him halfway. He presses her into the wood of his desk with a few quick paces and she knocks a spray of cherry blossom off the desk with a quick swipe.

"I'm sorry," He says again, lips ghosting over her neck, her collarbones once more, and this time, she chooses to believe him.

* * *

They travel around the world. Katherine gives Liam's letters to Kaya and Nat, takes her leave of them, and leaves for Paris with Elijah that very same night. From Paris, they move to Mauritius, and from there they go wherever they want to.

She looks at him on the sandy beaches of a private Greek island, almost ten years after he left Klaus. Elijah is a lighter man now, she muses, squinting against the glare of the hot sun. He doesn't look half as old as he once did, sitting here with the hot sun beating down on him, suitless and Klausless. Elijah notices her looking and leans over to give her a kiss.

They have found peace.

* * *

A/N: I had to!


End file.
